My first (Irish) wedding

On Friday I attended a wedding. My first ever wedding. I have never been to one in Estonia, or anywhere else in that matter, so I cannot pull comparisons.
First stop was the church at 1:30PM. A lovely ceremony…if you’re religious. I am not. Religious. So I found I had to kneel for too many times for my non-religious pride, too many times for my liking. I didn’t read along to any of the prayers and I didn’t join in for the amen`s. I found myself smirking at the readings… of course, I meant and mean no offence towards the bride and groom. Lovely couple!!!

Funny thing with churches- they are amazing looking buildings and the acoustics are phenomenal.
Savage as I am, during the giving of the body of the Christ, all I could think of was – germs!!!! So for this reason and the obvious reason of “I don’t believe in god!!!” I did not receive holiness!!! Why would I want to put something in my mouth that has been touched by someone else? Or why would I want to drink from a chalice that has been to a hundred pairs of hands and been lifted to as many lips? Creepy.
I did have to partake in the “peace be with you”-handshakes. There’s only so ignorant one can be, right?

Across the road from the church in a pub, I can be quite certain, some of the guests were having a brilliant time behind their pints and fags and other non-religious stuff that goes on in the pubs! That’s probably the reason some people had to go sleep it off before 5PM hit. It’s always funny to look at lads who appear for their first drink in immaculate condition. Their third drink they pick up with the tie loose. The fifth one will be accepted with their shirt out of their pants and some dribble going down the same row as the buttons.

The reception at the hotel was to start at 5:30PM. Ah, the place was buzzing. All the bars at the hotel were under pressure and people were in a great mood. The tables were named after tractor’s. I was in the Komatsu table. There was Massey Ferguson, JCB, Case, etc etc. Gotta love your tractors in rural Ireland 😉 Food was lovely and in copious amounts. The speeches were funny and short. Our table played a game during the speeches. Everyone at the table dropped a 2 euro coin into a wine glass and every time “Thank you” was said in a speech the glass was handed around. The person who ended up holding the glass once the speeches were finished got to keep the money. I was even quite confident I would recognize the thanks in Irish language- “Go raibh maith agat”

Ended up hanging around until 4AM. Mostly spent time with my Irish family, chatting and bonding. Shared a few dances. Highlight of the night of course the one rock ‘n roll song “Highway to Hell” when the heels came off and hair were flown… One rock song, was all it took to make me sore for the rest of the weekend.

As I have heard though, I think Estonian weddings would have more older traditions still going. Probably some games? But I can totally see the point for wedding-crashers. It is great fun and very extravagant and eventful.

Soon enough I will be able to post my own wedding as a comparison… Will definitely not be as wedding-y as the norm would be! 🙂